Tribe prospect Francisco Lindor pulled from game after taking a ball to the face
June 25, 2014Indians 6, Diamondbacks 1: Kluber shuts down snakes
June 26, 2014
Silly season: Both Grantland’s Andrew Sharp and Bleacher Report’s Michael Pina wrote about the chaos of Cavs rumors yesterday. It has officially become a national circus. Thankfully, it’s all over today. That’s because the draft is Thursday. Remember that, kids.
“If you know a basketball fan from Cleveland, go give him or her a hug and say everything’s gonna be OK.” — Sharp. He’s getting good at pandering with Cleveland sports fans, eh?
Oh and another reminder: This tweet was sent right after the lottery. RIGHT AFTER THE LOTTERY.
Cleveland GM David Griffin will play this one well, throw out a ton of misdirections and see what he can get in terms of trade offers.
— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) May 21, 2014
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David Blatt: Coach Nick had a 5-minute video on the Cavs offense under their new head coach.
Expect much, much more on the Blatt front from Scott later this morning here at WFNY.
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Indians All-Stars: Michael Brantley and Corey Kluber are going to represent the Cleveland Indians at the All-Star Game in Minnesota next month. … No, technically that’s not official, but it will happen. They are both two of the best players in the AL and deserve to be recognized for their accomplishments. They showed it again last night in Arizona.
Beyond The Box Score’s Stephen Loftus pegged Brantley’s offensive numbers are the most positive surprise in baseball so far. He is batting .325/.394/.524 in a season of very low run scoring. He is quickly closing in on his career high of 3.2 rWAR, set back in 2012. Both Brantley and Lonnie Chisenhall are having two of the better first-half OPS+ marks in recent Indians history.
Then there’s Kluber, wow. The Akron Beacon Journal’s August Fagerstrom wrote about Kluber earlier in the week. He really has developed into one of the American League’s best starters. He now has a 3.09 ERA in 110.2 IP with 122 strikeouts and only 28 walks. I never ever saw this coming back in the 2010 Jake Westbrook trade. My favorite thing about Kluber: He’s under team control through 2018 (!!).
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Random thoughts: The new Sports Illustrated website is pretty terrible. Photoshops of LeBron are taking over Twitter. I don’t understand why it’s cheaper per ounce to buy small beers at Progressive Field than large beers. I ended up playing seven games of bowling last Friday night; that’s your regular reminder to go do things out in the world and not just read blogs.
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Rehab alert: The Nationals announced Wednesday that Bryce Harper will continue tomorrow in Double-A with the Harrisburg Senators in … Akron. Yup, there you go, folks. You should definitely make your way to an Akron RubberDucks game this weekend to check out Harper. Tickets on the Ducks website.
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Draft plans: Finally, come join #CavsTwitter over at the Quaker Steak in Lakewood tonight for the NBA Draft. Details on Facebook. Expected Cleveland sports blogging celebrities include WFNY’s Craig Lyndall, Ben Cox, Kirk Lammers and Jacob Rosen; Fear The Sword’s David Zavac, Ryan Mourton and Patrick Elder; @nominatur; @wayneembryskids; Wahoos on First’s Ed Carroll; and so many more. It should be fun. See ya there.
26 Comments
I definitely agree with you about the new SI website. It’s a terrible combination of generic and inconvenient.
Good news: After today, all of the toilet rumors surrounding what the Cavs will do with the first pick will cease to exist. Yay!! 🙂
Bad news: The “fans” will start up garbage talk about what the Cavs “should have done” with the first pick. Ugh!!
SI has a website?
I would love to come out of this with the #2 or #3 and some nice goodies.
C’mon Griffin, there’s one born every minute…
Question is can Griffin get the #2 or #3 pick, and keep the #1 pick too?
That new website is terrible and impossible to navigate. Why change something that was fine?
one thing about the SI site that i like is that the bullet-point headlines are in the middle of the page. I just think they should be bolder, and maybe have a border around them or a graded background to make them pop.
but there is probably a little too much going on. nah, make that definitely.
the three is a lot more likely, but i smell what you’re stepping in.
It’s the new style and it’s terrible. Jumbled mess of everything all over the place. The sad thing is that they have some really good writers that are mixed in with all the bad web design and TMZ pieces that populate their site.
Out of curiosity:
Who do you pick at #3 (or 4 or 5) if Wiggins/Parker go 1-2 as expected?
Also, what is enough “goodies” to make that move?
Seems like a good of spot as any to discuss the NBA trades:
(1) Asik to Pelicans for a 2015 1st rounder (if it falls 4-20)
What the heck? Why is NO doing favors for Houston? I get that Asik + Anthony Davis makes a nice frontcourt defensive combination (and Ryan Anderson can play with either). But, Houston HAD to trade Asik to get in on LeBron or Melo next week. They were over a barrel. Many times teams give up a 1st round pick in order to move salary like this one.
Nice move Houston.
(2) Chandler, Felton to Mavs ::: Calderon, Dalembert, Ellington, and Larkin to Knicks (along with 2x2nd rounders)
Not quites as crazy, but while the Knicks may shed $3mil this offseason, they add $5mil next offseason. Net loss on their cap wiggle room. Also, I can only guess that New York is tanking next year because when they lose Chandler & Melo they will have pretty much no frontcourt. Calderon & Larkin are both nice enough PGs, but I don’t think this trade makes the Knicks better nor improves their flexibility. They have to now use these assets in another deal to make it worth it (guessing Calderon and keeping Larkin).
Mavs play is obvious. Chandler + Dirk is a proven combo and if they can get Melo to sign, a championship contender. The pieces they gave up can be replaced.
Amazingly, they still print magazines. I don’t know if they sell any though (I get both SI and SI-for-kids, but only because they are free. My wife buys me basketball shoes for Xmas every year and every year they have come with a coupon for a free subscription).
Bailing out of #1 should net us #3, an additional 2014 first round pick, a contributing contract-friendly starter, a 2015 first round pick, and some underpants.
My first option is still using the #1 on Wiggins, but should someone crack and offer us the farm, welllll…
Embiid at #3 is still intriguing.
When I used subscribe to printed media, I preferred The Sporting News to SI. More facts, less fluff.
Tricky to navigate as getting the ’15 1st requires to wait until after the picks are made (Stepien Rule).
But, let’s say Philly freaks out about potentially needing to either draft an injured center (Noel – Embiid) or a big PG (MCW – Exum) for a 2nd consecutive year and panics.
#3 – Embiid (I’ll stick with your selection)
#10 – Someone will drop. Gordon? Randle? Or go with Lavine, Harris, or Stauskas at SG.
Cheap Starter – they don’t have any. Hollis Thompson is really intriguing though. As is James Anderson. Let’s say they give us both rotational guys.
’15 1st rounder – perhaps we get the Houston special on protections? We get it if it lands #4-#20. Otherwise, wait a year and repeat.
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That could be worth passing up on Wiggins. Would really depend on what our doctors think about Embiid’s bones (and foot surgery).
That would be a feat of Houdini-esque proportions.
Griffin would definitely have to get creative, but that’s why he makes the big bucks.
But, I’m totally fine with Wiggins, in the meantime.
Is all this draft misdirection really worth it? I wonder how much time front offices actively spend on this or how much it is just a product of desperate sportswriters reporting complete and utter nonsense.
Cavs Twitter draft party sounds like such a great idea!
takes 2 minutes to send a random email to a reporter. takes 24 hours for that rumor fervor to die down. repeat.
Because more people are accessing the site from phones/tablets than PCs now.
And it looks fine on phone/tablet, which was the goal.
Their parent company CNN has a fine website for both though.
Does Isiah Thomas still have a GM job?
So you make the web version lame?
Agree. SI has to improve the PC version, but it absolutely makes sense to change to a phone/tablet version.